[FilmFest Nanaimo] Film symposium explores First Nations topics

[Global Film Festival Nanaimo]

Award-winning filmmakers Christine Welsh and Tracey Kim Jack will show their most recent work and discuss the filmmaking process at a free symposium to be held at Malaspina University-College on Wednesday, March 19, 10 am to 4 pm, building 355, room 211.


Metis filmmaker Christine Welsh has been producing, writing and directing films for more than twenty-five years, earning much acclaim including winning the Women in Film and Television Artistic Achievement Vancouver Award On March 8. She is known for her strong commitment to documenting the experience of Aboriginal women in Canada.


At the symposium, Welsh will show her latest film, Finding Dawn, which documents the human face of missing women in the Downtown Eastside, on BC?s "Highway of Tears" and in Welsh's home province of Saskatchewan.
The film is named after Dawn Crey, a woman from the Sto:lo Nation who went missing in November 2000 and whose DNA was found at the infamous Pickton farm in 2004.


Finding Dawn shows the deep historical, social and economic factors behind the epidemic of violence against Aboriginal women in this country. Its ultimate message: stopping the violence takes a community effort.
In addition to her filmmaking, Welsh currently teaches courses in First Nations Women's Studies and Indigenous Cinema at the University of Victoria.


Tracey Kim Jack, a member of the Sylix Nation from the Okanagan, is an independent broadcast journalist and filmmaker.


She has won numerous awards for her work and contributions to the community. While she remains sensitive to the communities she depicts, she is not afraid to tackle tough topics such as drug and alcohol abuse, and violence.


At the symposium, Jack will show her film Silent Violence, where lateral violence leads to tragedy on the Penticton Indian Reserve. A woman plays an important role in helping the community understand the loss and move towards healing.


Jack will also screen her most recent film, Magic on the Water (2007), which explores the vibrant art, history and oral traditions of the Sylix Nation through the journey of a 100-year-old canoe. In it, the Sylix people share their testimonials of laughter and pain as they strive to restore their traditional systems of governance.


Jack is currently Program Director with the Indigenous Arts Service Organization in British Columbia.


This event is sponsored by Malaspina's Media Studies and First Nations Departments, the Media Research Lab, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.


For more information, please contact Marshall Soules at soules at mala.ca, 753-3245, loc 2123; or Laura Cranmer at cranmerl at mala.ca, 753-3245, 2763.?
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